The programme, that aims to speed up adoption of technology in London’s NHS, relieving high pressure on services and empowering patients to manage their health, supported 31 companies on the first cohort to obtain 38 contracts with the NHS over the past 12 months.

DigitalHealth.London – voted 5th in the top 100 global healthtech brands – is on a mission to unite healthcare and new technologies, and bring it in line with other industries.A Populus Data Solutions survey of 2,000 UK adults by founding partner MedCity, found that only 33% of people had booked a GP appointment online, compared with 72% who had booked a hotel stay online and 59% who had gone online to book a train ticket. The public is keen to digitise their health with 33% interested in having an implant in their body to monitor their health and 56% would be happy for their confidential records to be shared via an encrypted system to support prevention, diagnosis and treatments, for themselves and the wider population.

The chosen companies aim to build on the success of the first cohort, who have had strong uptake across the capital:

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, together with its charity CW+, is trialling five digital health solutions including Medopad, a mobile device to monitor heart failure patients at home, and Physitrack, offering remote, video guidance for physiotherapy patients.

The London Ambulance Service has adopted Perfect Ward, cutting out medicines paperwork for faster ambulance care, that are now being implemented across over 70 ambulance stations in the capital.

North West London Clinical Commissioning Groups are tackling diabetes through OurPath; a fitness wristband and 3G connected weighing scales to provide clients with real-time updates to help tackle type-2 diabetes, which achieved an average 5.3kg weight loss in studies.

“With ever-increasing pressures on health and care services, the Accelerator aims to lead companies into the complex world of NHS procurement; speeding up adoption of innovation and ensuring that patients benefit from emerging new technology, more rapidly. We are blown away by the success of the first cohort and our NHS Navigators are keen to get started with this next set of fresh, talented entrepreneurs.”

Deputy Mayor of London for Business, Rajesh Agrawal, said:

“Health tech companies have long struggled to work with the complex, archaic health system and I’m extremely proud that our programme has taken some of this pain away. London is the digital capital of Europe and this convergence of tech and health means smarter ways for people to manage and improve their health, and a release of some of the burden on our hospitals.”

Zoë Penn, Medical Director, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “The Accelerator has been a key component of our innovation and quality improvement portfolio this year. We have worked with our charity CW+ to secure some high quality, transformative and patient-centric digital health projects, engaging with over 45 staff across both our hospitals. I shall be looking forward to a second even more successful year.”

Dr Roger Chinn, Deputy Medical Director atChelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Working with our charity and the accelerator has produced meaningful, well designed digital health projects across the Trust. What I find particularly encouraging is not only how this innovative digital health portfolio complements our quality improvement drive and values, but also how positive its impact has been on all staff and patients involved.”

DigitalHealth.London worked with over 100 senior NHS, commercial and technical experts to assess 127 companies’ business credibility and the likely benefit their innovations could deliver at a pan-London level.

Notes to Editors:

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact Kim Watson, Communications Manager Life Sciences, at MedCity on kimwatson@medcityhq.com or call on +44 (0) 7553 374546

DigitalHealth.London is a collaboration between the three London Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs): Imperial College Health Partners, UCLPartners, the Health Innovation Network, and MedCity, with support from NHS England and the Mayor’s Office.

The DigitalHealth.London Accelerator programme is receiving funding from the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. The Department for Communities and Local Government (and in London the intermediate body Greater London Authority) is the Managing Authority for European Regional Development Fund. Established by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects, which will support innovation, businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations. gov.uk/european-growth-funding

Populus Data Solutions is an award winning survey and data delivery agency. It supports leading insight, media and strategy agencies to provide state of the art data capture, delivery and visualisation solutions, whilst staying true to the ethos of robust research. Populus Data Solutions is proud to have won the prestigious MRS Operations Award for Best Data Solution in both 2015 and 2016 and is delighted to have been shortlisted as a finalist again in 2017.